According to God Dethroned´s discography, INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL is the band´s 5th full-length studio album. The guys debut album titled THE CHRISTHUNT was released 14yrs ago and the band has traveled a long way since those days and become one of the most respected and potential European Death Metal bands amongst the extreme metal audience. I assume when the band inked a deal with Metal Blade Records and released their 1st album (THE GRAND GRIMOIRE) through them in 1997, that particular year was also sort of a turning point for these relentless Dutch deathsters; a real crucial point of the band´s whole career more or less as far as all the promotion, etc. were taken care for them.

INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL is said to be God Dethroned´s most ´socially critical´ album to date; being inspired terrorist attacks and such ´ugly things´ in the name of some ´God´. You only need to check out lyrics for such songs as "Gods of Terror" and "Soul Sweeper" that specifically deal with some brutal actions against the mankind in the name of God(-s).

As for the songs on INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL, it´s pretty much a bit more varied, slightly heavier and more dynamic album, basically containing both very fast - and slow tempo songs, compared to its predecessor RAVENOUS in which overall the tempo was basically kept a relatively high all the time, kinda having no time for taking a deeper breath while the songs on that album was rushing headlessly toward the end. Also, a noticeable amount of more melody parts have been dragged in for this opus that make the album stand out a bit better because it´s most often varied amount of different elements in songs that at least in many cases, should guarantee more spinning sessions for some certain records and that way make them to survive a bit better in the minds of people in general during a long run.

On INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL God Dethroned displays some great melody sections in such tunes as in a slow tempo opener and the title track of the album "Into the Lungs of Hell" that also is one of my fave cuts off from the whole album. Also the next track, "The Warcult" has got some beautiful melodic guitar lines being created to the very beginning of the song until all hell breaks loose – and we are about to notice to be in the middle of these merciless God Dethroned –troops´ crossfire in no time.

The fourth song off INTO THE LUNGS... titled "Soul Sweeper" is one of the album´s stand-out tracks for having real crunchy and heavy guitar riffs going on in it; not forgetting some of those somewhat mind-sticking guitar melodies that can easily be traced down out of this particular tune, too. "Gods of Terror", the closer tune of this album, is one heavy fucker as well that cannot be ignored either even if some insanely fast yet heavy blast beat attacks seem to take more and more place the more towards the end the song develops.

As for more familiar sounding God Dethroned shit - with lots of blast beats, a half dozen different riffs per second (well not exactly, but you surely got a clue anyway, -ha!), etc., there´s a plenty of that ´shit´ on INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL, too, so the old fans of the band don´t have to be worried at all. A speed limit is blown up sky-high in such tunes as "Soul Sweeper", "Subliminal" and "The Tombstone" that basically roll over you mercilessly like a massive kill division of Panzerfausts from the deepest pits of Hell.

All in all, INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL was a pretty positive surprise from God Dethroned. With the help of this album, I believe God Dethroned have only been strengthening their position as one of the finest and strongest leaders in the European Death Metal scene, there shouldn´t be any doubts about it at all!!

Track Listing

01. Into the Lungs of Hell
02. The Warcult
03. Enemy of the State
04. Soul Sweeper
05. Slaughtering the Faithful
06. Subliminal
07. The Tombstone
08. Gods of Terror